Samsung explains why missing FM Radio on the Galaxy S4

Every Galaxy S has it, only the Galaxy S4 hasn’t we are talking about the FM Radio. Samsung decided not to bring the FM Radio application to the Galaxy S4. According to Samsung people listen more to online broadcast radio streams. (which costs data)
What do you think do you miss the feature of no FM Radio? Or do you listen as Samsung said, to own music and online streams?

Below the explanation by Samsung Russia.

Our studies show a trend shift of interest to digital broadcasting, specifically – focus on listening to music content in social networks or on the channel YouTube. The flagship model of our products are focused on customers who use digital content, which use modern formats and channels of information consumption. (translated from Russian).

By the end of a day, stupid decisions in my opinion. Phone is not cheap but Samsung is trying to get from customers some more bucks… When I am outside I do not see any logic to spend my limited monthly data to listen online radio if alternative costs me nothing…

AGREE.ALSO i believe that SAMSUNG has planned this after came in agreement with the telecommunications providers in order to earn more money from digital streaming(online radio services). Please disagree with IF am i wrong!

If you are travelling abroad and the data is not cheap in roaming it is a shame not to have an old fashioned radio in a flagman-ship model like this. When I pay a lot and possess top model I expect to find more features, not a cut off version of someone’s ideas about usage.

Another example: Just because DTH, cable & IP televisions are wide spread, should Samsung produce its future TV’s without tuner for Terrestrial reception?

I’m SGS and SGS3 user. I always use FM radio every day. At my home and my village / home town, internet coverage always low, just GPRS, EDGE and sometimes 3G / H+. I can’t use streaming radio. Huu… (T_T)

They don’t need to explain anything, they just failed by excluding FM Radio.
After all those years laughing at apple products due to the lack of this feature (among other reason) now they fail to follow the same tactics.

Although in big cities of Europe, EEUU and some Asian countries FM radio isn’t so important nowadays, it’s still really relevant on South America and Africa and small villages of developed countries.

I hope they revert this decission once they release Note III, otherwise I’ll stop buying Samsung phones after 4 years.

9500, the Exynos international version which for 99% doesn’t have LTE – also doesn’t have FM Radio. My first thought was – yeah, USA versions don’t have it, but the rest does.
But Russia, according to SamMobile, has only 9500 model, and it was already confirmed by a well-known person (Eldar Murtazin) that it doesn’t have FM Radio. I was just waiting for a confirmation of it, it was 99% sure in this case…

The FM radio was one of the main reasons I wanted to go from Apple to Samsung cos of the FM radio feature but now I’m not so sure. Although many people use online streaming that doesn’t mean that the phone has to be only for the majority. Samsung brags about they inspiring the device on people, well you should know that there’re many different groups of people, those who listen to FM radio on the phone also exist. Keep the users happy by being different from the pack. That’s fisrt year of college samsung geniouses…

I thought it mattered when I got the 3G instead of the LTE SGS3, but frankly I haven’t used it even once. Besides, a simple pocket-size FM radio is 5 euros, and you’ll save about half your phone’s battery life! (which to me seems fairly important in an emergency or remote area…)

All the music on the radio is rubbish anyway. I’ll stick to seperate mediaplayer, thanks. Batterly life!

“Sorry, but I’m a guy and I don’t have the luxury of carrying a purse like you do.”
Yes, I’m a woman. No, I don’t carry a purse. Have you *tried* literally running and climbing all across a city or a mountainrange carrying a purse? I carry a separate mp3 player. Why? Because that way I can use both my phone *and* my music all day. And guess what comes with an mp3 player?

“You obviously don’t go out much”
I travel all across Europe throughout the week for work. This requires me to have 24+ hours battery, because I don’t always have access to a power outlet. So no, I don’t use my phone if I don’t need it. Sometimes I have to span 4 days without a recharge. Prioritizing is a lesson many would do well to learn.

“Using your logic, the Galaxy S4 shouldn’t include Data or LTE because using a PHONE to browse the web is a waste of battery. ”
My ‘logic’ concerned an emergency or abandonment case. If you’re going to waste precious power to check your facebook in the middle of a calamity, you deserve to be left behind to die.

“Does that mean Samsung should drop the Exnos version in the US because I don’t need it?”
Considering you never had, nor would get it in the first place, I do not see the issue.

Well, that proves that Eldar Murtazin in Mobile-Review test was right – no radio in BOTH international version (as Russia only gets 9500 according to SamMobile, and GSMArena already tested and proved there is no radio in 9505).

Stupid explanation, if you ask me.

Unless the chip itself was taking a lot of space – it doesn’t make sense.
But same goes for LTE, huh? It SHOULDN’T use much space. Somehow Korean version COULD get the LTE SoC, interesting, right? I think the same goes for FM Radio.

Why it’s a bad decision?
1) Battery. Battery usage is much more extensive (not only data, but the phone cannot go into sleep mode ; the FM Radio uses about as much power as music listening (or even less) )
2) Network coverage. One HAS to be in at least 3G (stable, well-covered and non-overflowed by users’ phonecalls at the time!) to use streaming radio.
3) Availability. Not all of the FM radio stations have their streaming versions.
4) Costs. Even if one has a data packet, it is still used when it wouldn’t be needed. And if one doesn’t have it, one pays for data all the time.
5) Roaming. Look above… and multiply by lots, as often roaming data costs are outstandingly high.
6) Stability. Last but not least, FM Radio works more reliably.

So, why use FM Radio in the times of Internet news?
For example:
1) News – especially when you’re driving, you get information on the go. In some stations, you get well-detailed RDS info (or the radio simply tunes in to other topic) about road problems, accidents, weather, and so on – in general, it’s about your health, safeness and time.
2) Sports – good coverage of bigger sports events, LIVE.

Yeah, you could also get that on Internet radio.. but get back to the points 1-6 above and that can make you change your mind.

To put it shortly – Samsung makes an all-around device… and then puts old plastic design around it + worse looking materials as in case of S3 (the metal ones ; for example, blue), average ear-piece speaker – resulting in average call quality, no LTE in 9500 version (99% sure) – but not in Korea, no FM radio in ALL of the versions (even Korean ones, but that’s explainable there), lower speed of the CPU comparing to Korea (as always)…

Samsung HAS to make better ear-piece speaker, because call quality is VERY IMPORTANT, and HAS TO (after the downfall of S3 in crash-tests) build their devices more crash-proof (even if it’s that damn plastic).
FM Radio, clocking of CPU are, all-in-all, less important, but still… It’s a step back.

I’ll be honest I didn’t even realise my Galaxy SIII and never used it on my old S1, so it’s not really a feature I care much for, I’m more bummed about the fact we aren’t getting the Octa CPU in the UK.

For the sake of weight and power things have to be dropped… do you miss the svideo cable support when you’re using blueray? What about that desk eating 24″ CRT?

Some technologies aren’t used as much and can be cut. It saves on testing, development, manufacturing, support. If it’s a really useful feature keep it, if it can be replaced with something more flexible replace it.

Well, dear laic and ignorant, do you think it would weigh too much? Like, 1 g? Maybe 2? Damn!
LTE SoC also did weigh too much on the international versions of Exynos, however in Korea it could be included? Shit!

Now seriously.
Somehow I think FM radio didn’t need too much testing :>
Not speaking of dev-ing. Some support sure would be needed – but c’mon, users know how to use the radio. The costs would be minimal, as manufacturing – such beast shouldn’t cut on anything really.

Think before you say something. REALLY.

And oh, that desk eating 24″ CRT was better in really almost all specifications than most of the LCD (and such) monitors made today, save for weight and dimensions. Some companies (like Philips) still produce it for professionals nowadays.

I just hate this kind of thinking, back-throttling really. Also reminds of people that get sacked and told that no one is irreplacable

After this S*, I have to have a second thought! No FM causes more data causes more money. and don’t forget when you are travelling abroad cause the data is not cheap in roaming!. F* your studies. I hope this is a removal of the FM radio app not the whole FM feature

This is a petty level decision on a premium device with so many useless bloatware removing a usefull feature is a fault.

I just bought a Galaxy note II 4G and I must say I am disappointed coming from my Galaxy SII that the GN2 4G has no radio, and I would say radio connexion is not as good on the GN II 4G as on the Galaxy SII.

so far I am disappointed, I will have to carry both phones, even on holiday when I wanted to dedite my SII to professionnal call and thus forget it during holidays, I won’t be able to do that because of that !

remember at the time of the SII launch, HTC lost to SII because of petty decisions like low capacty of batteries, petty decision lead to decline as it has been poven for HTC, supressing radio is a petty decision from Samsung.

I think FM radio still important these days and that’s why I change my x10 to galaxy ace 2 because of its radio feature. not all fm radio has their own streaming and i don’t want to sacrifice my internet quota just for radio. after all, my internet connection in Indonesia is not as good as europe or US, not quite stable

So it is very unfortunate for flagship handset does not include fm radio for its feature

In Brazil we use FM radio since we don’t have Pandora. We also use when watching a football game. Fm narrations are awesome and give more excitement. So it is a cultural thing.
I have a Galaxy S3 with FM radio and Sony MW600 bluetooth headphones with FM radio included.
It’s nice to be able to record the audio from radios.
Poor decison from Samsung.

It’s too bad that Samsung decided to excluded the FM Radio in Samsung S4, I don’t think I would upgrade my samsung galaxy note II to S4 for that reason.. No matter what, the FM Radio really useful in certain conditions.

Let me place my opinion (explanation) about this issue, and i hope that this point of view is not far from what really happens. Also, please forgive me, if there will be some mistakes with my English! Let’s start explaining!
Marketing is just maths and facts!

Well the facts are:
1) Samsung kept winning the market when first invented AMOLED displays and the successful Humingbird 1GHz processor in 2009. So that makes SAMSUNG the leading company in producing high featured LCDs.
2) Samsung succeeded with Humingbird, due to high (power efficiency)/(battery consumption). That keeps enhanced year by year till now (the great Exynos 5 Octa platform).
3) Samsung is a leading company in supplying modules to other companies (Apple, SONY, HTC, LG, Meizu.. etc).

NOW keeping in mind all these 3 facts assume that I’m samsung and you all that you are reading this, are the other companies that are being supplied by me. We are all sitting in a round table and discussing. You all know that i’m going to release a new EVEN better product that will help me an EVEN bigger part of the market! Also I AM a supplier for you. So let’s say that Meizu tells me that “I want to produce 2 mobile phones that will sport your Exynos Quad core and Exynos Dual core”. Then i answer to Meizu “Ok Meizu ..that will cost you 8$ per SoC (system on a chip – Exynos) PLUS the brand Exynos team that will help you catch a tiny part of the Market that i’m leading with this technology”. Also i believe that Samsung has an robust politic which says THAT “NO OTHER COMPANY CAN BE SUPPLIED WITH MORE THAN TWO TECHNOLOGIES THAT I USE ON MY SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTS” for example you have never seen any company featuring Exynos and Super AMOLED screen . Okkk… Now All of you know,as i said, that i’m realeasing SGS 4. This will make me sell even more than i sold with its predecessors (SGS, SGS I, II & III).. but this means that YOU,all the other brands i supply, will sell EVEN less. That means loss of money for me AS A SUPPPLIER to you ;). I want you to do well in the Market in order to buy chips and modules from me for your products.

Apart from all of you..there are the service providers that called me for a council in order to discuss some issues. When i met them (Vodafone, AT&T, Verizon, etc) they made me A TREMENDIOUS offer. Hear this..they told me “Hey sammy.. as you know the media are great products for earning money.. the stats shows that we must make an investement on this so when releashing the most eagerly awaited SGS 4 we hope that you make something so that we can have great profits…and you will be paid GOOOD from this”. And i told them.. “Yes… well you know…i think that i could forget to put the radio module (as my friend Apple does successively so many years)… Also this helps the other brands to sell their phones because a small part of my FAITHFULL customers WILL not buy SGS 4 this year,,,”

SO ALL THINGS ARE GOING GOOD FOR ME AND FOR ALL OF YOU AND FOR THE SERVICE PROVIDERS…

If this all happen, i will be very stupid to buy SGS 4! Because as you know SAMSUNG will add FM radio, again, on its SGS 4 mini that is coming out on July and i believe on the next SGS 5. Stop being fooled by the leaders of the Market!

For the lucky ones out there who not only have and can afford high speed broad band fair enough, but I like really do like FM and will not buy the S4 sorry. Same as I want Dual sim so end up with a cheaper Chinese copy which has it all and keep dreaming that once Samsung will wake up. Ah! and give me the right to get rid of the crap software I do not want nor need.

Poor decisions in my opinion. Phone is not cheap but Samsung is trying to get from customers some more bucks… I do not see any logic to spend my limited monthly data to listen online radio if alternative costs me nothing… And Samsung is trying to make the same mistake as apple? The people who buy a S4 is diferent who buy a Iphone and with this decisions probably loase clients for apple our HTC because they have radio FM in the One and a better finish. I wait a few months to by a new phone from Samsung if they promise put a radio FM in Galaxy S4.

Galaxy S4 is perfect because it supports all capabilities and additional functionality such as the Infrared , led light and more ! But if the support of both the radio with record and dvb-h with record Then I would be willing to replace it with the my Galaxy S3.
Of course It was better supported than Java and supported of dual sim.
Thank you

I use the FM radio on my phones daily while at work. I excitedly bought a Galaxy S3 4G thinking it was my dream phone, then had to sell it for a loss when I discovered it didn’t have an FM radio. Bought an S3 3G instead.
If there’s no FM radio, I won’t be buying it. I even went to the trouble of buying a Sony Ericsson R306 which has FM & AM radios (the only model I know of with AM) so I could listen to cricket coverage in summer.
Podcasts are great for stories but nothing is as up-to-date as free to air, broadcast radio.
I want DAB/DAB+ in my next phone. Get onto it Samsung! Or HTC/Sony/Apple(yeah right)

I have to say F**k u samsung niggas for Even thinking that we didn’t need Radio n by Radio i mean FM Radio on These brick Phones of yours,….Bought this GT-i9305 S3 and i sold it if off and very cheaply btw just bcoz there was no FM Radio so f**k U Samsung niggaz, big tym,…..next time when your thinking of producing a f**kin huge brick phone for the market just remember to include An Fm radio Chip u sad worthless hommies,…………..Radio f**kers we need it remember its the same reason i didn’t buy iphones and thus samsung S4 shit too….Am out…………………